Australians buying more luxury cars, Mercedes king of 2015 sales

Mercedes-Benz was the most popular luxury car brand in Australia during 2015, leaving key rivals Audi and BMW well behind in overall sales.

Mercedes sold 36,374 vehicles in the country last year, up 14 per cent on year-to-date sales achieved in 2014. Sales for the month of December were also up considerably, jumping 28 per cent from 2689 units to 3443 units in 2015.

Following well behind in second place was BMW. The Munich-based company sold 25,022 vehicles in the country during 2015. The figure is up 10.1 per cent on 2014 efforts. BMW experienced a drop in sales for the month of December, dropping 11.4 per cent from 1920 units in 2014 to 1702 in December 2015.

Sitting in third place was Audi. It sold 23,088 vehicles in the year. Despite selling the lowest amount of vehicles out of the main three, the Volkswagen-owned brand saw the biggest spike compared with 2014, with sales rising 20.1 per cent. December figures also increased, 27.6 per cent, from 1558 to 1988 units in 2015.

All three German giants saw increases in sales compared with 2014. This can be attributed to Australian customers having a higher attraction to premium vehicles, but also to the increasing number of premium models becoming available.

Interestingly, Toyota’s luxury brand, Lexus, saw an impressive 24.2 per cent rise in year-to-date sales in 2015. It sold 8691 vehicles in the year, up from 7000 in 2014. December figures were down though, 13.8 per cent, from 618 in 2014 to 533 in 2015.

Other higher end premium brands saw big increases in sales too, including Ferrari which experienced a 47.8 per cent increase in annual sales. Porsche sales jumped 45.4 per cent for year-to-date, while Bentley sales rose 17 per cent. Lamborghini popularity, incredibly, leaped 211.1 per cent. See below for the top 10 best-selling luxury car brands of 2015:

Brett is the editor and founder of PerformanceDrive. He’s obsessed with driving, having played with Matchbox cars until he was tall enough to drive a real one. After initially working as a mechanic, Brett earned a degree in journalism and entered media as an editorial assistant at Top Gear Australia magazine. He then worked at CarAdvice.com.au. His dream is to live next door to the Nurburgring in Germany.

MisterZed

Are Australians “buying” more luxury cars, or leasing? Leasing is not buying.